Need for mini CABs to tackle drug gangs
And local “safety nets” are required to help families suffering “appalling” levels of intimidation because of debts owed to gangs.
An Oireachtas justice committee hearing on gangland crime was told that more employment and youth facilities were needed in the affected communities.
Dr Johnny Connolly of the Health Research Board told the committee that in the course of research he carried out, the “overwhelming majority” of people said they wanted more gardaí on the streets. He said his 300-page research document, Illicit Drug Markets in Ireland, had identified unemployment as one of the main causes of drug addiction.
Marie Metcalfe, the coordinator of the Community Policing Forum in Dublin’s north east inner city, said lack of Garda resources was the biggest problem in recent years.
“The drugs problem is absolutely horrendous, a lot worse. My community is full of drugs, blackspots everywhere and I’d put that down to Garda resources: We don’t see enough gardaí on the street,” she said.
She said her division has lost 120 gardaí due to the closure of Fitzgibbon Street Garda Station. However, she said the level of communication between herself and gardaí was very good.
Ms Metcalfe said there was a great need for “mini-CABs” — units that do the work of the Criminal Assets Bureau and target local dealers.
“The dealer has the big house and the huge jeep and all the children say ‘I want that, I’m going to get it’ and that’s what they do,” she said.
She said it requires a dedicated unit of three to four local assets profilers who would then forward their file to the national CAB.
Dr Connolly said the return of assets back to communities from where money originates constantly comes up. He said there were thousands of people caught up in the drugs trade: “There is nothing an individual can bring to the drugs trade that another individual can’t bring in a couple of months, if you take one person out of circulation.”
Both individuals underlined the need for some sort of local mechanism to help people intimidated because of drug debts. “There is a need for community safety structures — to get people to engage given the fear of reprisal,” said Dr Connolly.
Ms Metcalfe said the level of intimidation was “absolutely appalling”.
Assistant Commissioner for Dublin, John Twomey, said intimidation was “a particularly difficult area” to tackle. He said gardaí can adopt a two-pronged strategy, involving a uniformed presence to disrupt the activity and also an intelligence investigation.
He said there was a nationwide programme in place to try and deal with intimidation which worked with the National Family Support Network.
Det Chief Supt John O’Driscoll of the Garda National Drugs Unit said that, as Dr Connolly’s study had identified, employment in affected communities was “clearly a major part of the solution”.
The National Family Support Network can be contacted on 01 8980148 or at www.fsn.ie
